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25040Venturebeat.comNielsen: Mobile games live and die on how fast developers can crank out new contenthttp://venturebeat.com/2016/10/18/nielsen-mobile-games-live-and-die-on-how-fast-developers-can-crank-out-new-content/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/18/nielsen-mobile-games-live-and-die-on-how-fast-developers-can-crank-out-new-content/#respondTue, 18 Oct 2016 21:05:29 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=2083980Mobile gamers can be insatiable. And that appetite is the key challenge for developers trying to maintain momentum for a popular app. Nielsen, the intelligence firm that studies consumer media behavior, has released research that looks into long-term success of mobile games. The company has found that popular games — especially those that it describes as “big […]
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Mobile gamers can be insatiable. And that appetite is the key challenge for developers trying to maintain momentum for a popular app.

Nielsen, the intelligence firm that studies consumer media behavior, has released research that looks into long-term success of mobile games. The company has found that popular games — especially those that it describes as “big bang titles” that erupt onto the market in a flash — struggle to maintain a place at the top of highest-grossing apps chart. Instead, games like the strategy battler Clash Royale, the human-management sim Fallout Shelter, and even the location-based creature-catching adventure Pokémon Go often lose ground to established favorites in the $36.6 billion mobile gaming industry. Nielsen explains that the reason these new hits fall behind perennial attention-grabbers like Game of War or Clash of Clans is that developers are not prepared to keep up with the demand that players have for new content.

“The typical dynamic of a big-bang title involves high awareness before launch and fast adoption in the first few weeks after launch, or when awareness reaches critical mass,” reads the Nielsen report. “A period of declining satisfaction among the early adopters follows, and these players usually move on to the next big title or back to previous titles. Leaving with them is the buzz and excitement that started the momentum behind the title to begin with.”

Nielsen found that hunger for new items, characters, and quests in mobile games is nearly constant through the first six months of an app’s life. But that demand reaches a zenith in the first few weeks.

Above: For mobile gaming, new content is king.

Image Credit: Nielsen

“In the majority of cases, new content demand among gamers reached a peak three-to-five weeks after a new title launched,” reads the report. “This plateau usually occurs when early adopters run out of content to enjoy or grow fatigued with the gameplay still available.”

This suggests that developers should have updates ready with plenty of new things to do within that first month. That’s crucial to keeping the most enthusiastic early adopters engaged, but it also present an even better first impression for people downloading the game because of word-of-mouth buzz.

“If developers can re-engage early adopters before they lose interest and switch to a different title, it can prolong the momentum behind mobile games and lead to more sustained acquisition,” explained the Nielsen paper.

In a competitive marketplace like mobile gaming, having a strategy to keep players around once they are engaged is crucial to avoiding the high costs of player acquisition and advertising.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/18/nielsen-mobile-games-live-and-die-on-how-fast-developers-can-crank-out-new-content/feed/02083980Nielsen: Mobile games live and die on how fast developers can crank out new contentNielsen: Games account for 10% of gamers’ leisure timehttp://venturebeat.com/2016/05/28/nielsen-says-games-take-up-about-10-of-our-leisure-time/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/28/nielsen-says-games-take-up-about-10-of-our-leisure-time/#respondSat, 28 May 2016 17:00:36 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1963096EXCLUSIVE: [Updated 6/1/2016: Fixed it to note that games take up 10% of leisure time for gamers, not all consumers] Games of all kinds now take up about 10 percent of the leisure time of gamers in industrialized countries around the world, according to the Nielsen Gaming 360 degree Global Report. About half the population in these […]
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EXCLUSIVE:

[Updated 6/1/2016: Fixed it to note that games take up 10% of leisure time for gamers, not all consumers]

Games of all kinds now take up about 10 percent of the leisure time of gamers in industrialized countries around the world, according to the Nielsen Gaming 360 degree Global Report. About half the population in these countries identify themselves as gamers.

And games have moved into the living room and beyond with strong usage across PC, console, and mobile devices.

“Gaming is as much an aspect of modern culture as anything else,” Nielsen said. “But as is the case with other consumer behaviors, gaming preferences and trends vary around the globe, which means that marketers need individual strategies to engage them.

Mobile gaming has made the growth possible.

“The ability to take gaming on the road and integrate it into our daily routines via powerful mobile devices has been significantly influential in bringing gaming into the mainstream over the past few years,” Nielsen said. “In North American and Europe, console and mobile are tied as the most popular gaming platforms, whereas mobile dominates the Chinese market by a wide margin. Comparatively, console remains the top choice in Latin America. Understanding the penetration of each platform across regions is critical for any publisher developing and launching global games.”

Nielsen said that the patterns of platform usage vary by market, but the picture of the modern gamer is consistent globally.

Above: Nielsen’s 360-degree gaming report.

Image Credit: Nielsen

“Not only have the gamer boys grown up, but they’ve enticed their friends and families to join as well. Today’s gaming generation is very inclusive, with tailored experiences across demographics,” Nielsen said.

By now, gamers have become a balanced demographic across ages and genders. Mobile is the newest and most accessible platform to both men and women of all ages. However, we can see a shift in traditional hardcore gaming as well, with Lara Croft’s evolution from a virtual (and very pointy) pin-up model to a smart, scrappy and very real role model, highlighting how gaming has clearly broadened its audience, the report said.

Console gamers are still a little younger, and PC gamers are older. And both groups skew slightly male. In some regions, there are differences.

“For example, gamers tend to be younger in Latin America, while the average age of gamers is highest in Germany,” the report said. “As with all art, however, some trends transcend sociocultural boundaries. For example, Nielsen found that when it comes to console games, action-adventure, shooters, and sports are genres with universal appeal, driven by the highly successful blockbuster franchises in these genres. Regionally, specificities do emerge: Chinese gamers prefer role-playing games (RPGs); fighting games are a successful category in Latin America; and racing games are strong performers in the Western world.”

For mobile, puzzle and general entertainment are the most popular genres across markets, though again some regional differences exist. The casino/card/board games tend to be more popular outside of Latin America.

When it comes to monetization, gamers are very different around the world.

“When given the choice, people will always opt for free games regardless of where they live,” the report said. “This isn’t too surprising from an overall perspective, but it’s worth noting that there are country-specific payment preferences. For example, in the mobile realm, gamers in China and the Latin America markets have the heaviest preference for freemium titles, while players in Germany have a strong preference for paid games. At the end of the day, one thing is certain: Gaming is a global phenomenon, but marketers need to be sensitive to the specificities of each territory to make sure they fully connect with gamers.”

Nielsen’s data is based on a consumer online survey in the first quarter. More than 10,000 consumers were interviewed in seven countries, from teens to adults. Half of those surveyed were male and half were female.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/28/nielsen-says-games-take-up-about-10-of-our-leisure-time/feed/01963096Nielsen: Games account for 10% of gamers’ leisure timeNielsen is now tracking mobile games in an effort to expand in a streaming TV worldhttp://venturebeat.com/2016/05/03/nielsen-is-now-tracking-mobile-games-in-an-effort-to-expand-in-a-streaming-tv-world/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/03/nielsen-is-now-tracking-mobile-games-in-an-effort-to-expand-in-a-streaming-tv-world/#respondWed, 04 May 2016 01:01:49 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1941404Nielsen (you know, that group that’s always going on about TV show ratings) is entering a new entertainment market. The company revealed today that it is going to start gathering data and insight on mobile games. It’s calling the new program Mobile Game Tracking (MGT), and Nielsen will base it off of info gathered from a […]
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Nielsen (you know, that group that’s always going on about TV show ratings) is entering a new entertainment market.

The company revealed today that it is going to start gathering data and insight on mobile games. It’s calling the new program Mobile Game Tracking (MGT), and Nielsen will base it off of info gathered from a group of 1,200 mobile gamers each week. The mobile industry was worth $34.8 billion in 2015, according to market research firm Newzoo. Any data that shows which games are the most popular can help developers make more successful titles.

“In a rapidly changing mobile games market consumer behavior can often seem elusive and difficult to predict,” said Michael Flamberg, vice president and general manager of Games, Nielsen. “Nielsen Mobile Game Tracking allows developers to efficiently measure a mobile title’s potential, recognize strengths and weaknesses within the market, and to track their improvement over time. It’s an invaluable tool.”

While you can just look at app store rankings to see which games are most popular, more precise tracking can reveal information on specific demographics and the effectiveness of marketing. This also gives Nielsen a new market to work with as traditional TV continues to suffer from the wrath of cord-cutters.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/03/nielsen-is-now-tracking-mobile-games-in-an-effort-to-expand-in-a-streaming-tv-world/feed/01941404Nielsen is now tracking mobile games in an effort to expand in a streaming TV worldNielsen predicts the top-selling games of holiday 2015http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/05/nielsen-predicts-the-top-selling-games-of-holiday-2015/
http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/05/nielsen-predicts-the-top-selling-games-of-holiday-2015/#respondMon, 05 Oct 2015 23:55:45 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1816212Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III is expected to be the No. 1 multiplatform game of the holiday season, according to the Nielsen Game Rank service. Nielsen, which is known for its TV viewership service, is predicting who will be on top this fall based on “overall anticipation levels” measured by the company. Based […]
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Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III is expected to be the No. 1 multiplatform game of the holiday season, according to the Nielsen Game Rank service.

Nielsen, which is known for its TV viewership service, is predicting who will be on top this fall based on “overall anticipation levels” measured by the company. Based on its look of games being released from October through December, the company found both perennial powerhouses and some “heavy hitters back from hibernation.”

“All seven of the multiplatform titles that gamers covet most are being released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC,” Nielsen said.

In terms of exclusive titles, Microsoft’s Halo 5: Guardians on the Xbox One came out on top at 100 percent, compared to Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection at 79 percent on the PlayStation 4. Blizzard’s StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void ranked third on the exclusive list at 91 percent on the PC. Rise of the Tomb Raider on the Xbox One ranked at 80 percent.

Nielsen’s data comes from a survey of more than 4,800 gamers age 7 to 54 between August and September. Nintendo’s Yoshi’s Woolly World was No. 1 on the Wii U at 91 percent while Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden was No. 1 at 86 percent on the Nintendo 3DS. Corpse Party: Blood Drive was No. 1 on the PlayStation Vita at 76 percent.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/05/nielsen-predicts-the-top-selling-games-of-holiday-2015/feed/01816212Nielsen predicts the top-selling games of holiday 2015Adobe and Nielsen team up to deliver ratings for online TV & digital contenthttp://venturebeat.com/2014/10/21/adobe-and-nielsen-team-up-to-provide-new-standard-ratings-for-online-tv-digital-content/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/21/adobe-and-nielsen-team-up-to-provide-new-standard-ratings-for-online-tv-digital-content/#respondTue, 21 Oct 2014 10:00:10 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1581093Adobe and media tracking company Nielsen are teaming up to add a new set of audience ratings for online videos and other digital content, the companies announced today. Nielsen is probably best recognized for TV show audience ratings, which help advertisers understand what kind of reach a particular program will have. This is pretty much […]
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Adobe and media tracking company Nielsen are teaming up to add a new set of audience ratings for online videos and other digital content, the companies announced today.

Nielsen is probably best recognized for TV show audience ratings, which help advertisers understand what kind of reach a particular program will have. This is pretty much the standard among TV networks, but with so many people now watching TV programming online, those ratings are missing out on a portion of the total viewing audience.

With today’s partnership, Nielsen will use Adobe Primetime to finally track viewer numbers and demographics for online video. Nielsen’s goal is to provide ratings that measure audiences accurately regardless of where or how they’re watching — be it from a desktop, mobile device, cable TV, or on-demand services. This is sort of the first step in getting a universal standard measurement for all video content.

The new Nielsen ratings are based on aggregated anonymous viewing data collected through Adobe Analytics, which will track and measure all digital content (online TV, videos, games, ads, audio, text). Brands and agencies using Adobe Marketing Cloud with then have access to both this data and the new Nielsen digital ratings, allowing them to make more informed decisions when spending their ad budgets.

A handful of big name media companies have already signed up to use Nielsen’s new ratings through Adobe, including ESPN, Turner, Sony Pictures (including online video service Crackle), Univision, and others. However, the ratings data won’t be available until 2015.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/21/adobe-and-nielsen-team-up-to-provide-new-standard-ratings-for-online-tv-digital-content/feed/01581093Adobe and Nielsen team up to deliver ratings for online TV & digital contentHey Nielsen: If TV audience measurement ain't broke, don't 'fix' ithttp://venturebeat.com/2014/08/21/hey-nielsen-if-tv-audience-measurement-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/21/hey-nielsen-if-tv-audience-measurement-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/#respondFri, 22 Aug 2014 02:20:08 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1531441GUEST: Don’t you hate watching someone work on a ‘solution’ to fix a problem that has already been solved? This is what’s currently happening in the digital media space for television with audience measurement and tracking.
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GUEST:

Don’t you hate watching someone work on a ‘solution’ to fix a problem that has already been solved? This is what’s currently happening in the digital media space for television with audience measurement and tracking.

Even though today’s TV everywhere deployments seem fresh and new, the reality is that the ad industry has been laying the foundation for years. Today, there are robust and vibrant means though which audiences are measured, tracked, and targeted. Take audience measurement as an example — today’s digital media players on devices, in apps, and on webpages are just as capable of measuring precisely how long a viewer is connected in the same way Nielsen measures television viewing in the home. But when it comes to advertisements, TV everywhere experiences shine.

In the digital media world, ads can be personalized in a much more relevant, efficient and applicable fashion (think location, viewing history, one-to-one connection with the cloud). For measurement and effectiveness of ads themselves, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released a specification known as the Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) to standardize the communication requirements between video players and the ad servers. Using this technology, we are able to measure audiences, advertisements and impact as well, if not better than broadcast.

Enter the new Nielsen ad measuring software development kit (SDK), which is touted as a single point of measurement for broadcasters (aka those running a traditional linear TV experience) to track additional viewers during programming and the ads included with it. The problem with Nielsen’s SDK is that it’s a “television 1.0” solution that is late in arriving to the scene for a “television 2.0” that is just now beginning to hit its stride.

Those running an on-demand or TV everywhere content platform have already solved the measurement problem, and can, in fact, measure audiences in a much more informed manner than broadcast. They do this via individualized internet delivery, which enables much more robust targeting and delivery of programming and ad payload to the user. This method also allows for leveraging metrics like viewing behavior, location, device, and authentication. Yet, there is still a disconnect between these different viewing screens and platforms. The solution here would be for both platforms — broadcast and digital — to synchronize on a standard which leverages the best of both worlds.

Digital ad models don’t account for over-the-air payloads, and traditional television ads still fetch the highest percentage of advertising spend. Yet, trends show us that advertiser spending on digital ads is increasing with amazing velocity. Over time, brand advertisers will eventually pay higher rates (called CPM) to reach the highly targetable viewer I mentioned earlier. Both models can and should adjust to account the growing number of TV everywhere eyeballs.

Rather than old dogs trying to learn new tricks and pushing a non-standardized way of measuring programmatic content and the ads that exist there, I submit that a more federated approach should be considered.

Programmers and content creators agree that support for all screens is a must have, and revenue patterns are emerging. During a TV Everywhere panel recently at The Independent Show, a trade show for cable operators and programmers, BJ Elias, vice president of advanced services at Fox Networks, said that they derive revenue from both subscription (traditional cable and DBS distribution) and advertising (over-the-top) delivery models. As we’re all well aware, most of the money networks make is driven by those distribution relationships with cable and satellite providers.

However, as TV everywhere becomes simply ‘television’ (independent of the screen on which it is viewed) the ad spend will normalize across both platforms. And the means through which we measure viewership and ad consumption will matter even more. The choices we make and solutions we deploy now will bear more fruit in the days ahead. But only if we don’t apply multiple solutions to the same problem.

Matt Smith is a recognized digital media industry evangelist and thought leader, having spoken at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, TVNext, Streaming Media East & West, and NewTeeVee, among others. He is presently chief evangelist for Anvato, a turnkey platform solution that enables media companies, content providers, and broadcasters to enable their content to reach any screen at anytime with a robust, powerful and complete toolset. Prior to Anvato, Matt was vice president of technology for Chideo, VP of Internet television at Envivio, architect at Cisco Systems, and VP and chief systems architect at Inlet Technologies. Matt has also served as a key video architect and evangelist for Yahoo and spent several years at NBC.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/21/hey-nielsen-if-tv-audience-measurement-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/feed/01531441Hey Nielsen: If TV audience measurement ain't broke, don't 'fix' itAOL chief says Nielsen rating deal ‘will bring the wall down’ between TV & web adshttp://venturebeat.com/2014/05/07/aol-chief-says-nielsen-rating-deal-will-bring-the-wall-down-between-tv-web-ads/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/07/aol-chief-says-nielsen-rating-deal-will-bring-the-wall-down-between-tv-web-ads/#respondWed, 07 May 2014 14:22:07 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1468616AOL CEO Tim Armstrong was very optimistic during today’s Q1 earnings call when asked about the advertising potential of its new slate of original webshows. Last week AOL announced a partnership with Nielsen to provide audience ratings for the 16 original shows the company recently debut. Nielsen provides the industry standard for measuring audiences on […]
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AOL CEO Tim Armstrong was very optimistic during today’s Q1 earnings call when asked about the advertising potential of its new slate of original webshows.

Last week AOL announced a partnership with Nielsen to provide audience ratings for the 16 original shows the company recently debut. Nielsen provides the industry standard for measuring audiences on TV programming and will now translate those measurements into an appropriate rating for long-form, serial web video content. The move should make it more appealing for brands (that typically buy TV ads) to spend money on ads for AOL’s web shows.

On the call, Armstrong said the Nielsen ratings deal “will bring the wall down between web video and TV.” That’s something both streaming video platforms like YouTube and web video producers have struggled to do when it comes to pulling in advertising revenue.

AOL’s strategy similar to what the digital radio industry is attempting to pull off. For instance, Pandora has spent the last year partnering with the same third-party audience measurement firms used by the terrestrial radio ad industry, with the expectation that radio ad clients will value digital radio ads on the same scale as terrestrial ads.

Has your mobile device or computer become a second TV? Most likely yes, and audience measurement firm Nielsen is out with a new report today asking when advertising will adjust to an equality between large and small screens.

They’re not yet equal in key measurements, but the trend is clear. Each month, 283 million Americans watch TV, but a non-trivial 150 million consumers watch video on the Internet — a 10 percent increase over three years ago.

Two factors are driving this convergence: advertisers want multiscreen campaigns, and, influenced by the metrics available in digital, they want measurements of resonance and reaction in TV advertising, not just reach.

In other words, the impact of ads is becoming more important than how many people see them.

But several factors are holding the convergence back:

• The ad spend is still heavily tilted toward TV, with $78 billion spent on TV ads last year, compared to a projected $5.72 billion this year for online video. Obviously, TV gets most of the attention.

• TV ads remain the most influential form of advertising yet invented, but tracking information on TV viewers — a subject that Nielsen knows well — is described as “expensive and challenging.” Online metrics can be very inexpensive and detailed, so TV and online video are currently mismatched.

• Large ad agencies are still buying TV ads in TV-oriented silos — national or local TV, broadcast, cable, syndication — while online video ads are being bought by the digital agencies or digital divisions that purchase search ads or display ads.

• One surprise is the human factor. The report found that TV media buyers know each other, creating trust that doesn’t exist in automated online ad buying:

“As one marketer remarked, ‘Silicon Valley doesn’t understand TV. They only understand digital. And, until they begin to understand both, there will be a disconnect.’ TV buyers and sellers will need to reach a level of trust in automation for adoption to occur.”

In the short term, the report suggests that online video ads will continue as a growing subset of online advertising — and TV-oriented ad agencies will increasingly package digital ads as part of multi-screen buys.

By 2016, expect to see some integration of ad buying, as the digital infrastructure underlying modern TV delivery increasing resembles online’s. Coming soon: direct measurement in near real-time of all video ads, including TV, coupled with the ability to cross-ref viewing data against online activity and recent purchases.

By 2020, Nielsen predicts full integration:

“For this convergence to take place, the advertising industry will need to embrace video as a platform agnostic medium.”

What would your daily life be like if smartphones had never been born? We will never know — until someone makes a movie like “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring an iPhone instead of Jimmy Stewart — but Nielsen has taken a stab at figuring out how your daily routines have changed because of those little slabs.

Smartphone ownership is continuing to grow: Two-thirds of U.S. mobile phone subscribers in Q4 are smartphone users, for instance.

And mobile usage has now exceeded Web usage in the U.S., U.K., and Italy, the consumer research firm noted in a post Monday on its Web site.

Britons used smartphones nearly 42 hours on average, Americans 34 hours, Italians 37. In each case, that’s significantly more than online computer time: 27 hours in the case of Americans, who increased their smartphone time about 15 percent compared to a year ago.

“Not only are consumers spending more time using their phones,” the report noted, “they can’t seem to put them down, increasingly accessing their phones multiple times a day.”

Americans access apps and mobile sites an average of seven times a day, two more times daily than in December of 2012. Britons reach for their handsets about nine times daily, nearly twice the average of a year earlier.

‘A Better Expression’

And what are we doing with our phones? Mostly using apps, particularly ones for entertainment and media or for social media. Text messages take up nine percent of users’ time, on average, while phone dialing — remember they were once telephones? — is a mere 3 percent of usage time for American Android users.

Brad Shimmin, an analyst who covers social media for industry research firm Current Analysis, pointed out to VentureBeat that findings similar to Nielsen’s could be obtained — sans statistics — simply by observing people sitting for a minute in any context: outdoors, in a restaurant, or on a sofa ostensibly watching TV.

“They are more electronically engaged,” he noted, “than with each other.”

In fact, Shimmin said, smartphones “are keeping us more connected than we were before, and they’re keeping us more apart than ever before.” He also ventured the mathematical fact that “approval from 200 people on your smartphone can be more rewarding” than the approval of people right in front of you.

Against Shimmin’s claim, however, is recent research by urban anthropologists showing that people in public situations don’t actually spend much time on their phones — unless they’re alone. Only 10 percent of adults spotted in New York’s Bryant Park were using their phones, while just 3 percent of adults on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum in New York did, according to a study recently discussed in the New York Times Magazine.

Shimmin sees some hope in wearables, because they will shrink smartphones down to the point where “the phone is left in your pocket,” and the interaction is on your wrist, in your ear, or in your glasses. You can still interact, but you’re not staring at a screen.

“It’s like when a great invention comes along,” Shimmin said, “and it makes our lives a little worse until a better expression of that technology comes along.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/24/smartphone-users-cant-seem-to-put-them-down-nielsen-reports/feed/0973878Smartphone users ‘can’t seem to put them down,’ Nielsen reportsHow CivicScience is massively disrupting consumer research, 400 million opinions a yearhttp://venturebeat.com/2014/02/11/this-mark-cuban-funded-startup-is-massively-disrupting-consumer-research-400-million-opinions-a-year/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/11/this-mark-cuban-funded-startup-is-massively-disrupting-consumer-research-400-million-opinions-a-year/#respondTue, 11 Feb 2014 18:03:31 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=892247Free is a really attractive business model if you want to grow fast. Which is probably why CivicScience has found a way to give free research to journalists and free visitor information to websites … and a way to make money selling something else to an entirely different market. The site has gathered over 400 […]
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Free is a really attractive business model if you want to grow fast. Which is probably why CivicScience has found a way to give free research to journalists and free visitor information to websites … and a way to make money selling something else to an entirely different market.

The site has gathered over 400 million opinions this year alone, at almost no cost.

“We can track anything we want, anywhere we want, very fast,” founder and CEO John Dick told me a few days ago. “I even use our platform sometimes to settle fights with my wife … for instance about how late we should let our kids stay up.”

Above: A CivicScience poll on which smartphone consumers will buy

Image Credit: CivicScience

Basically, CivicScience’s model is the same as that of app analytics companies like Flurry and App Annie: Give something away of huge value (in the case of Flurry and App Annie, statistics about how people are using mobile apps) to get something of tiny value incrementally but huge value in aggregate (global data on the fast-growing software market). For CivicScience, however, the give is sophisticated website visitor analysis, and the get is consumer polling data. In other words, CivicScience gives hundreds of media organizations better insights into their users, in exchange for inserting short polls into their stories.

At face value, the company is setting up to compete with opinion-gatherers like Gallup and Nielsen. Dick’s vision, however, extends much farther.

Above: CEO John Dick

Image Credit: CivicScience

“Think politics, finance, technology,” he told me. “This has ubiquitous value across business sectors. … We’re building this company as a platform, and we have designs on being one of the next big technology companies.”

To see the vision, think about a global platform that can assess sentiment across a broad swath of people and at a scale that renders statistically relevant, meaningful data within hours. Then think of that being segmented by groupings like finance, and the kinds of stock market implications that could follow, or technology, and the kind of market intelligence that could be acquired.

The vision, advisor Mark Cuban says, is dynamite:

“There is no limit to what these guys can accomplish,” Cuban told me via email. “Their skill set is making sense out of data and asking the right questions to get the right data. That can be the foundation for a great company.”

Dick has raised $6.9 million in venture capital so far from mainly strategic partners, such as NPD Group, a consumer market research company out of Boston, and Cox Media Group, a TV, radio, newspaper, and website conglomerate. Other advisors besides Cuban include Astro Teller, the aptly-named entrepreneur and visionary currently heading up Google X, which engages in projects such as driverless cars, Google Glass, and other “moonshot” ventures.

Above: Instagram may be wildly popular, but 72 percent of people don’t plan to use it, or have never heard of it.

Image Credit: CivicScience

By partnering strategically, CivicScience has been able to embed its tiny one-to-three question polls on hundreds of high-traffic sites. While media partners get more sophisticated insight into who their users are, what they do, and what they like than Google Analytics can provide, CivicScience gets a platform for assessing the opinions of the masses.

It’s an equitable and happy exchange, Dick says:

“We’re going to media companies and asking them to put our polls in their content — and we’re not paying a CPM,” he says, sounding almost shocked at the fact that CivicScience has pulled it off. “In return, we have to deliver enough value to make that worthwhile, and by all accounts we’ve more than done that. Our attrition rate is very very small.”

The result of the data, which Dick then can sell to enterprises who need to know what consumers think, are surprisingly good. The company employs data scientists who vet the questions and the data and don’t release results until they’re scientifically relevant.

That provides better data, Dick argues, than insight derived from social media, which he says is dominated by a noisy few who are not a good sample of average people. Which explains why A&E quickly pulled Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty based on Twitter reaction, and then just as quickly reversed its decision days later after a widespread backlash via phone and email.

“How many companies are wasting energy by targeting a bunch of people who really don’t align with their brand?” Dick asked in a story on AdAge a few days ago. “The most vocal people on Twitter are not representative of the real world. Not even close.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/11/this-mark-cuban-funded-startup-is-massively-disrupting-consumer-research-400-million-opinions-a-year/feed/0892247How CivicScience is massively disrupting consumer research, 400 million opinions a yearNielsen adds mobile viewing data to its traditional TV ratingshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/10/28/nielsen-adds-mobile-viewing-data-to-its-traditional-tv-ratings/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/28/nielsen-adds-mobile-viewing-data-to-its-traditional-tv-ratings/#respondMon, 28 Oct 2013 15:20:42 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=848048With the multitude of ways people are now consuming TV shows, Nielsen has released a new SDK today that will track when people watch something on mobile devices. In years past, Nielsen was only able to accurately track viewing from traditional televisions screens, which basically means those ratings were blind to anything that was watched […]
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With the multitude of ways people are now consuming TV shows, Nielsen has released a new SDK today that will track when people watch something on mobile devices.

In years past, Nielsen was only able to accurately track viewing from traditional televisions screens, which basically means those ratings were blind to anything that was watched on other devices such as tablets, smartphones, apps via smart TVs, and more. That puts not only Nielsen at a disadvantage, but also the entire television industry, which uses Nielsen ratings to sell billions of dollars of advertising each year to brands, companies, and others wishing to get their message out during popular TV programming.

The new SDK is actually a wider rollout of something the company has been testing for the last several months. The new tracking system will be able to gauge where and when people are watching a program (tablets, smartphones, DVRs, smart TVs, etc.) using a combination of big data and “census-style” measuring. The new measurements will be available to participating TV networks by mid November.

Nielsen said it will help match up demographics for who’s watching a program using data from Facebook, (having already partnered with Twitter for improved social ratings data in the past).

The new SDK is definitely something that’s a long time coming for Nielsen, and one that may help the TV networks prevent the implosion of the multi-billion dollar TV ad industry from suffering the same fate as print advertising.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/28/nielsen-adds-mobile-viewing-data-to-its-traditional-tv-ratings/feed/0848048Nielsen adds mobile viewing data to its traditional TV ratingsNielsen to release its Twitter TV rating datahttp://venturebeat.com/2013/10/07/nielsen-to-release-its-twitter-tv-rating-data/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/07/nielsen-to-release-its-twitter-tv-rating-data/#respondMon, 07 Oct 2013 14:46:10 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=829084Nielsen will release its findings today about how many people are tweeting during live broadcasts of television shows. Tweets are a new way for Nielsen to gauge how big of an audience programs have. And for the company’s Twitter-integrated ratings could translate into more advertising sales for Twitter from large media companies. What’s interesting about the […]
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Nielsen will release its findings today about how many people are tweeting during live broadcasts of television shows.

Tweets are a new way for Nielsen to gauge how big of an audience programs have. And for the company’s Twitter-integrated ratings could translate into more advertising sales for Twitter from large media companies.

What’s interesting about the data we have seen is that the largest number of tweets about a program doesn’t necessarily mean a program has the largest audience. For instance, the finale episode of AMC drama Breaking Bad saw 9.3 million unique users sending tweets about the show, giving it the number one spot for Twitter TV rankings. However, the show itself didn’t even make the top 10 most watched programs for the week (by Nielsen’s measurements). Still, what’s being pointed out here is that even if you weren’t tweeting about the show, you were reading someone else’s tweet about it.

Tweets drive viewers, and more tweets drive more viewers, according to a new Nielsen study released today. This is the first study ever to confirm that Twitter drives ratings and that a spike in tweets equals a spike in viewership.

In other words, Twitter and TV have a mutually beneficial relationship.

“We saw a statistically significant causal influence indicating that a spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of Tweets, and, conversely, a spike in Tweets can increase tune-in,” Nielsen’s Chief Research Officer Paul Donato said in a statement.

By analyzing minute-by-minute trends, Nielsen says it was able to determine that 48 percent of primetime broadcast TV shows stimulate a statistically-significant increase in related tweets, and that for 29 percent of them, spikes in tweet volume pumped ratings higher. More simply put, people tweet about popular shows, and when lots of them tweet, more people watch.

“These results substantiate what many of our TV partners have been telling us anecdotally for years: namely, that Twitter drives tune-in, especially for live, linear television programming,” said Ali Rowghani, Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer. “As the world’s preeminent real-time social communication medium, Twitter is a complementary tool for broadcasters to engage their audience, drive conversation about their programming, and increase tune-in.”

The correlation between TV ratings and tweets is particularly obvious in live, competitive, and engaging TV such as sports, comedy, and reality TV, Nielsen said. In fact, “competitive reality” TV shows — such as The Voice, X Factor, or America’s Got Talent — drive the most significant increase in ratings as a response to tweet spikes:

The fact that TV drives tweets is not particularly shocking. The fact that tweets drive TV is much more significant.

This is key to Twitter’s advertising programs, which aim to allow brands to have a seamless presence on TV and Twitter simultaneously, reaching the same people in multiple ways and in multiple places for increased impact.

“We’re allowing marketers to insert their brands seamlessly into the torrent of fan activity and engagement around our networks on Twitter,” Viacom’s head of sales Jeff Lucas said when that company joined Twitter Amplify.

In 2012, before Viacom had joined, its Video Music Awards saw 52 million tweet-votes cast and a peak of almost 100,000 tweets per minute. Clearly, the ratings impact helped Viacom decide to partner with Twitter even more closely, joining other media properties such as Turner Sports, A&E, MLB, and World Wrestling Entertainment.

These Nielsen results will help Twitter further enhance those efforts.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/06/nielsen-tweets-drive-higher-broadcast-tv-ratings-for-48-of-shows/feed/0789739Nielsen: Tweets drive higher broadcast TV ratings for 48% of shows3 things fruit ninjas can learn from Del Monte in mobile marketinghttp://venturebeat.com/2013/01/15/3-things-fruit-ninjas-can-learn-from-del-monte-in-mobile-marketing/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/15/3-things-fruit-ninjas-can-learn-from-del-monte-in-mobile-marketing/#respondTue, 15 Jan 2013 15:14:53 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=604640GUEST: Rovio’s success with Angry Birds, the fastest growing game in history, is a great example of how app developers are applying some ‘traditional’ marketing lessons to drive more revenue.
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Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on how a consumer-first company like Del Monte can learn from a mobile-first company like Fruit Ninja. Clearly, mobile developers have cracked the code on install-driven metrics around mobile marketing, but the reverse is still true – one needs to look no further than Rovio.

Rovio’s success with Angry Birds, the fastest growing game in history, is a great example of how app developers are applying some ‘traditional’ marketing lessons to drive more revenue. Since Angry Birds flew onto iPhones in 2009, Rovio has leveraged every aspect of the game’s iconic imagery via apparel, accessories, small amusement parks and a soon-to-be released animated series for the big screen. The studio even announced plans to delve into the credit card business with its launch of Angry Birds prepaid debit cards.

So Rovio, once on the brink of bankruptcy, learned from its past failures and acted like a consumer brand, not just a game studio, to reach new heights – with or without a slingshot.

Other game developers have picked up on the clue that in order to become a hit, it pays to think like the agencies on Madison Avenue. Here are three concrete actions to do just that:

1. Pursue a Cross-Screen Approach

Digital media ranges from TV to PC; it’s not limited to your smartphone or tablet. Since many users aren’t tied down to one device, it’s important to realize how they use each one in distinct ways. Someone itching for a cruise vacation may see an ad for a Royal Caribbean cruise package as a banner ad on his iPhone, but the chances of him finalizing the package purchase with this same device are slim.

Google recently released a series of case studies demonstrating the significant lift achieved by brands using a cross screen approach. Delta Airlines achieved a 105% increase in brand awareness and a 103% increase in brand favorability by extending their campaign from TV only to TV plus mobile. Similarly, Volvo observed 74% brand recall for users exposed to multiple screens vs. 50% for TV alone. Both examples point to the importance of targeting audiences and their behavior across all screens.

Successful brands understand this — and are pursuing a multi-screen approach. They use some screens for creating awareness of their product, and others for influencing the user to complete the product purchase or download. Since certain devices elicit certain behaviors, developers must start tailoring their message according to the screen that displays it.

Let’s reference our main mobile example, Fruit Ninja.

The game’s studio, Halfbrick, made marketing a top priority from the get-go, despite not having many resources to do so at the time. Clearly not made for TV, the Fruit Ninja’s web video advertisement, featuring two actors dressed as fruit being chased through a park by another actor dressed as a ninja, quickly went viral on the desktop web. Rather than viewing every screen as an acquisition opportunity, developers should learn how certain screens both complement and contrast each other in order to deliver an effective campaign.

2. Channel Your Inner Nielsen

Ten years ago, it would have been costly and difficult for a developer to target a highly educated, married female scientist who also happens to actively play its game. Traditional brands accomplished this goal using approximations on television audiences provided by Nielsen, the leading global information measurement company. They would further commission brand loyalty studies by firms such as Insight Express and Dynamic Logic to track customer lifetime value to a particular brand. Such studies are expensive and time-consuming, but are the lifeblood of brand management.

Developers, in contrast, have had to work through a tangled web of anonymous Android mobile web cookies, UDIDs, IMEI numbers, SHA-1 hashes and now Apple’s IFAs (“Identifier for Advertisers”), with little specificity about audience or intent.

Finally, there are tools available for developers to leapfrog brands in their use of audience data and insights to find the right users. This is particularly important to any developer who is looking to establish a long-term relationship with its users.

The most obvious examples are commerce (like eBay, Amazon, Groupon), travel (Expedia, Kayak, HotelTonight) and streamed media (Netflix, Hulu, Spotify), where a loyal user may generate $5-$20/month for several years. A high percentage of users, however, download the app, and then do not activate (ie. add a credit card and make a purchase), and in many cases, more than 80% of users neveractivate at all.

Groupon’s financial filings are instructive: from their Q3 2012 earnings report, only around 7.9% of users are active; they are earning $5.33/month from active subscribers vs. $0.38 from all subscribers. Assuming an 18-month lifetime value calculation, their value per average subscriber is $6.78, while their value per active subscriber is $95.94. Clearly, the ability to identify an active user is worth more than an order of magnitude greater to Groupon. Now, marketers are able to not only target audiences, but they can also monitor post install behavior (ie. did users activate or become frequent purchasers?) to inform acquisition strategies. These are tried-and-true methods that brands have employed, and are now in the hands of developers.

The top brands of today would be lost without data, add-ins, insights and analytics to measure brand performance. And that’s how most game developers are today: stuck using unsophisticated tools for targeting rather than taking advantage of the tools at their disposal to build loyal, lifelong relationships with their users. With post-install metrics, developers can build a performance strategy that goes far beyond install.

3.Extend Your Brand Beyond Screens and Into New Products

Apps similar to Fruit Ninja are also beginning to learn from global brands and following the Rovio model.

Fruit Ninja released its game for Kinect on Xbox this past summer (in addition to already being available on iPhone, Android, tablet and PC). The game was already familiar to more than 25 million people who play on mobile phones and tablets, but expansion to Xbox continued to strengthen the product’s recognition by honing in on a specific audience segment: highly active male players aged 12 – 17.

Halfbrick went a step further by reeling in an even younger demographic of players who may not even have access to mobile devices or play consoles yet: in June of this year, Halfbrick rolled out a partnership with several leading international consumer product companies to bring Fruit Ninja toys, apparel, shoes and more to the marketplace.

Similar to Del Monte’s variety of food offerings, Fruit Ninja’s new product partnerships are great steps forward in brand extension. Audiences buy brands, not operating systems and OEM specs. In order for games to become real brands, they must focus on expanding an audience profile, rather than just attracting more mobile consumers.

And there we have it. Cross-screen marketing, granular analytics and brand extensions are just three steps for taking a fun, mobile game and turning it into a household name. Any other ideas are welcome in the comments section of this story below. What else can games learn from brands?

Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan left her position as lead scientist at Google-acquired Admob in 2010 to create and found cross-screen mobile ad network Drawbridge. Named one of Business Insider’s “Most Powerful Women in Mobile Advertising (Meet the Most Powerful Women in Mobile Advertising: 2012),” she is an expert on advertiser-buyer connections in today’s mobile environment. Kamakshi attended Stanford University and received a PhD in Information Theory and Algorithms.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/15/3-things-fruit-ninjas-can-learn-from-del-monte-in-mobile-marketing/feed/06046403 things fruit ninjas can learn from Del Monte in mobile marketingNielsen’s state of social 2012 report: more social, more mobile, more minutes, more TV, and more adshttp://venturebeat.com/2012/12/03/nielsens-state-of-social-2012-report-more-social-more-mobile-more-minutes-more-tv-and-more-ads/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/03/nielsens-state-of-social-2012-report-more-social-more-mobile-more-minutes-more-tv-and-more-ads/#respondMon, 03 Dec 2012 23:24:21 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=583486There's more of just about everything in Nielsens' 2012 state of the social union report ... all except the poor old PC.
]]>There’s more of just about everything in Nielsens’ 2012 state of the social union report — all except the poor old PC.

Both in the U.S and globally, people are accessing the web more frequently and for longer periods, using smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and smart TVs. We’re still using PCs as well, but personal computer usage of social media is just about the only category that’s down: 4 percent fewer Americans connected to the Internet via a PC in 2012, while 82 percent more connected via the mobile web and 85 percent more connected via a mobile app.

Above: Mobile app and mobile web use were both up — way up.

Image Credit: Nielsen

Overall, total time on the Internet in 2012 is up 21 percent to 520 minutes a month. A staggering 17 percent of that is spent on one service: Facebook.

And it’s social networks that are seeing huge growth, with 85.5 million accessing social networks via a smartphone or tablet app in July 2012 versus 44.8 million in July 2011, and 81.1 million using the mobile web in July 2012 compared to 43 million in July 2011. PC use is still the largest, with 171.8 million Americans using a laptop or desktop machine to get social online, but that’s just slightly up from 163.6 million in 2011.

Interestingly, while Facebook’s PC’s audience declined by 4 percent in 2012, Twitter’s grew 13 percent. Google+ grew 80 percent, and Pinterest grew 1,047 percent, but that has a lot more to do with the growth cycles of those two sites than transformative change in how users are accessing them. Facebook’s app audience increased by 88 percent, and its mobile web audience increased by 85 percent, more than offsetting the slight PC decline, and underscoring Facebook’s recent efforts to monetize its mobile services.

Another insight from Nielsen: Pinterest’s growth flattened — and even disappeared in early 2012. It had grown from an audience of perhaps 2.5 million in July 2011 to almost 25 million in February 2012, but it plateaued at that level for three months, and then actually decreased in May before taking off again in June.

Still, Pinterest is a massive force online, especially among women, who make up 70 percent of its web audience, 84 percent of its app users, and 72 percent of its mobile web audience — and spent about 2.1 billion minutes on the site in 2012.

The second-screen phenomenon is on the increase as well, as TV viewers continue to use Twitter as a way to sound off, comment on, and chat with others about what they are watching:

Almost a quarter of 18- to 34-year-olds comment on social media sites about their TV shows while they’re watching, and the numbers are growing through 2012.

That’s a low percentage, globally, with 47 percent of people in Asia-Pacific countries using a second screen while watching TV, and a staggering 63 percent of people in the Middle East and Africa chatting online while watching.

The surveyors talked to 1998 U.S, adults, but the global component of Nielsen’s report surveyed 28,000 people in 51 countries.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/03/nielsens-state-of-social-2012-report-more-social-more-mobile-more-minutes-more-tv-and-more-ads/feed/0583486Nielsen’s state of social 2012 report: more social, more mobile, more minutes, more TV, and more adsYouTube is like Agent Smith in the Matrix: More, more, morehttp://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/online-video-august-2012-numbers-youtube-youtube-and-yet-more-youtube/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/online-video-august-2012-numbers-youtube-youtube-and-yet-more-youtube/#commentsThu, 27 Sep 2012 23:02:04 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=540777TV is moving to the web, and no company is benefitting more from that than Google. It's really not a competition.
]]>TV is moving to the web, and no company is benefitting more from this than Google.

According to Nielsen’s August 2012 statistics for the U.S., YouTube alone had more than triple the unique visitors of any other site, more than 25 times the number of video streams than its nearest competitor, and more time per viewer than any service other than Netflix.

It’s really not a competition.

This mirrors the results from ComScore’s July 2012 results in some ways, in which Google held a 3-to-1 advantage over nearest competitor Facebook in terms of unique video viewers (156 million to 53 million). But Nielsen’s methodologies and numbers differ from ComScore’s, and in Nielsen’s numbers for this month, Facebook trails Google unique visitors by almost 6-to-1: 138 million to 25 million.

(VentureBeat has reached out to Nielsen for comment, and we’ll update this story as we get an answer.)

TV is moving online, as we covered recently, especially via game consoles like the Xbox 360, set-top boxes, and smart TVs. Viewers on those platforms watch far more minutes than viewers on phones, PCs, or even tablets, and that’s where both Hulu and especially Netflix see the majority of their minutes.

Other data from Nielsen show that Netflix remains the queen of engagement, with viewers watching an average of 10.5 of Netflix content each month, compared to not quite five hours for YouTube, and 4.5 for Hulu.

One brand that shows consistent viewership between both the Nielsen and ComScore ratings is VEVO, with something like 45 million unique visitors a month to its music videos.

But the most obvious finding?

Anyone who wants to catch YouTube has their work cut out for them.

photo credit: The Matrix Reloaded

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/online-video-august-2012-numbers-youtube-youtube-and-yet-more-youtube/feed/1540777YouTube is like Agent Smith in the Matrix: More, more, moreLink discovered between online buzz and TV ratingshttp://venturebeat.com/2011/12/07/online-buzz-and-tv-ratings/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/07/online-buzz-and-tv-ratings/#respondWed, 07 Dec 2011 23:06:10 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=362230Remember those stream-of-conscious tweets you posted about NeNe’s bad behavior in the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. It turns out that those updates amount to a whole lot more than pointless banter, according to analytics firm Nielsen, which has found a link between between social buzz and ratings. Nielsen, the TV ratings […]
]]>Remember those stream-of-conscious tweets you posted about NeNe’s bad behavior in the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. It turns out that those updates amount to a whole lot more than pointless banter, according to analytics firm Nielsen, which has found a link between between social buzz and ratings.

Nielsen, the TV ratings expert that also runs the social media measurement service NM Incite, looked at 250 television shows and more than 150 million social media sites to determine the relationship between social media and television.

Based on its data, Nielsen has concluded that there is “a statistically significant relationship” between online buzz and TV ratings throughout a show’s season, with stronger correlations among younger folks and females.

Specifically, if you’re in the 18 to 34 bracket, consider yourself among those whose updates are most likely to contribute to a ratings bump on premiere night. You all are the most active social networkers, according to Nielsen, and so a nine percent increase in buzz volume from your group, four weeks prior to a show’s premiere, will cause a one percent increase in ratings.

But your influence over ratings wears off a bit toward the middle of a season, at which time a 14 percent increase in buzz from your 18 to 34 year-old friends merely creates the same one percent ratings boost.

When it comes to our ability to influence ratings, sex really matters, as usual. “At the genre level, 18 to 34 year-old females showed significant buzz-to-ratings relationships for reality programs (competition and non-competition), comedies and dramas, while men of the same age saw strong correlations for competition realities and dramas,” Nielsen said.

Still, all age groups — even dudes over 50, the least buzzy demo according to the company — turn up the volume on their social chatter (but have less influence) by the time a show’s finale episode airs.

The bottom line is this: Lots of social media chatter from the right audiences equates to better ratings. Of course, this means we can expect even more networks to encourage viewers to tweet, Facebook, G+ and gab about shows all over the web. Bravo is already aggressive (and successful) in its Twitter hashtag promotion tactics.

For comparison, just 43 percent of Netflix viewers watch from PCs, and 36 percent watch from TV-connected video game consoles. Around 15 percent watch Netflix content on Internet-connected TVs and via Roku and TiVo.

In fact, on non-computer devices (excluding TVs that are hooked up to computers), Netflix customers access more content on a wider variety of devices than their counterparts on Hulu.

So what’s locking Hulu’s customers to their computer screens? If you want a short answer, it’s “Follow the money.”

According to Hulu’s wording in that brief boilerplate for its PC-only shows, it’s not Hulu’s fault that you can’t watch Bachelorette Ashely Herbert’s search for love on your Xbox; the buck stops with the networks.

Hulu is aiming for a goal of having all content available on all devices, but licensing is done on a show-by-show basis, and negotiation results can vary.

To understand how licensing screws up your ability to watch The Bachelorette via Roku while you can watch Doctor Who on any Netflix-compatible device in the universe, it helps to start with the differences between Hulu’s and Netflix’s business models.

Free, web-only content nets Hulu a lot of money from advertisers; Netflix’s business model is entirely different and doesn’t reply on web-only licensing.

Hulu’s non-paying viewers can only watch content on the web. Access from other devices is only available if you’re willing to pay for the privilege, and currently, fewer than one million Hulu viewers are.

But even for Hulu Plus subscribers (who pay $8 each month to get more shows on more devices), some of Hulu’s most popular content, including shows like The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Pretty Little Liars and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, isn’t available for viewing on non-PC devices.

As Hulu tells its users in the app, “We currently don’t have the rights to make this show available on TV or mobile devices.” That means no PS3 access, no Roku access — it’s just you, your laptop, Ashley and the bachelors on a lonely Tuesday night, unless you feel like whipping out your HDMI cable and plugging your computer into your TV.

This is where many Hulu Plus subscribers become frustrated. As one wrote in a recent blog comment, “To my dismay, after paying for 10 months, every one of my favorite shows is web-only. What am I paying for?”

The complaint is common enough that Hulu addresses it on its FAQ page, saying, “When we launched the free Hulu.com service, we obtained licensing to stream content directly to the PC and only to the PC. With the launch of the subscription-based Hulu Plus service, we had to start from scratch and acquire licensing to stream content on TVs, smartphones and tablets, as well as PCs… There are still some exceptions that we are working to resolve.”

Netflix, on the other hand, requires a subscription for all content and makes no restrictions about what kinds of devices can be used. So far, its subscriber base is around 25 times larger than Hulu’s. However, it doesn’t get any advertising money from big brands, so offering free content isn’t really a viable option, economically speaking. If Netflix offered free, web-only content, you’d likely be seeing less diversity in the devices used to access the service’s movies and shows.

So, given that Hulu makes money from subscriptions and ads on all Plus content, and given that networks could get more eyeballs for their shows if said shows were available on all devices (and could do so without losing revenue), what’s the hold-up with getting Hulu Plus shows on all supported devices?

In two words: Time and lawyers.

Hulu Plus has only been in existence for eight months, and the company is continually making new deals for distribution on new devices and distribution of new content. Currently, the service offers 2,000 TV series and 1,500 movies with access from around 100 devices. But getting the content licensed for the devices an ongoing process with networks and other content creators.

We wondered whether Hulu’s deals with NBC, ABC and Fox might not be a bit easier to negotiate (since these networks are Hulu’s owners as well as the creators of almost all the most popular TV shows on the service), but Hulu says there’s no distinction between making agreements with these three networks and other partners, which number more than 260 altogether. That makes sense, given that Hulu is getting ready to be sold, and it will need to have licensing agreements in place that are independent of whoever the company’s ultimate corporate parents are.

Why the networks are dragging their feet on a potentially universally beneficial move is anyone’s guess; we’ll be watching out for those renegotiated agreements and how they might affect Hulu Plus’ bottom line.